Puso: my wash day routine

Hey kɔɪlies!

Let's talk wash day. I've been asked how I go about it a few times so I figured it would make a good post. Let me start by saying I'm a fan. Any chance I get to lather my hair is a win, but sometimes it can leave me feeling like this:

Some wash days are tangle free delights and others remind me how much I miss my twa ( teeny-weeny afro). Over the years, I've developed a method that takes a lot of the pain out of it. In sum, it's a three part process consisting of a detangle, wash and deep condition and finally, moisturising and stretch.

Step 1: Detangle

I take my hair out of the style I was wearing (for me this is generally some sort of bun). I then braid my hair in 6 big blocks. This allows me to detangle it more easily. I work through each section with my fingers detangling and removing any hairs that have shed making sure to re-braid each section when I'm done. Once this is done, I spritz my hair with warm water and apply a conditioner that has a lot of 'slip' to help my comb to get through it more easily. Again I braid each section back up when I'm done. I comb my hair with a wide tooth comb from end to root (from the end of my hair towards my scalp). This allows me to work through tangles as I discover them and saves me ripping out my hair. I follow this up with a tangle teezer and make sure that I keep my hair in the braided sections.

Step 2: The wash and deep condition

I soak my hair with water and use a shampoo on each section focusing on my roots which tend to get oilier. I never use my nails to rub my scalp but rather my finger tips. Sounds a little pedantic but I've found that it makes a difference to the amount of pressure I put on my scalp and saves me a literal wash day headache. I lather each braided section 3 times (it really isn't necessary to lather this many times but I just do- habit). After the third rinse, I put a deep conditioner in each section of my hair and rebraid. I then cover my hair in a shower cap and turban and go about my day then rinse out in the evening (4 or so hours later). Alternatively I sit under my Heutiful steamer or hooded dryer for 20 minutes. The kind of deep conditioning I'm doing determines the kind of heat I use. For a protein I use dry heat and for a moisturiser is use steam. When I'm done with the deep conditioning I rinse out the conditioner.

Step 3: Re-moisturising and stretching

This is the home stretch. I wrap my hair in a towel and squeeze out the excess water ( never rub, please, never rub) because it minimises tangling. Rubbing is a sure fire way for me to end up with chunks of hair on the bathroom floor. I then add a little conditioner (usually the same one I detangled with) to each section and follow up with my koili butter. I unbraid moisturise and rebraid each section as I go. When its all done, bed! Next morning I take down the braids and have stretched hair to style however I like.

Sounds hectic but it gets quicker with each wash and helps to keep wash day pain free. I'll do a post on the products I've used.